MEHMET DOGAN BEY v. G. G. ABDENI & CO., LTD.

[1951] 1 Lloyd's Rep. 433

KING'S BENCH DIVISION.

Before Mr. Justice McNair.

Charter-party - Breach - Payment of freight - Delay - Devaluation of pound sterling - Loss on conversion into foreign currency - Measure of damages - Remoteness - Whether question of law or fact - Functions of Judge and jury - Power of arbitrator - Charter of Turkish ship to carry full cargo of barley from Lattakia (Syria) to United Kingdom - Freight to be "paid in London in advance, discountless, on signing bills of lading," in sterling to owner's London agents - Loading completed and bills of lading signed on Sept. 3, 1949 - Owner's agents instructed by owner to remit charter freight to Turkey when received - Charterers' London agents notified by their principals (of Beirut) on Sept. 7 that freight was being remitted - Freight not received by charterers' agents until Sept. 13 - Cheque for freight received by owner's agents from charterers' agents on Sept. 15 - No steps to remit freight taken by owner's agents until Sept. 20 -Devaluation of pound sterling on Sept. 18 - Claim by owner against charterers in respect of resultant loss -Arbitration-Award that charterers were in breach in failing to remit the freight on the due date, but that the loss due to devaluation was "not reasonably foreseeable" at the date of the charter and "did not naturally and directly flow from" that breach, and that accordingly the owner was not entitled to recover in respect of the loss sustained-Case stated-Whether question of remoteness was an issue of law (or of mixed fact and law), or an issue of fact.